Best Dash Cam

Why Truckers need a Dash Camera

After my last trip from Arizona to Florida across I 10 – I am no longer putting off buying a high quality dash cam. I had more hard brakes on this one trip than in the past three months. People pulling out in front of me from the shoulder or slamming on their brakes and nearly stopping on the interstate in low visibility spots. There was even a San Antonio city police officer that decided it was a good idea to stop in the middle of the freeway (loop 1604) at the bottom of a hill where he could no be seen until it was too late – to pick up part of a blow out tire – then he proceeded to drive it across three lanes with his drivers door wide open and the tire hanging out of his arm and the door. Had it not been for other cars putting on the brake lights as they topped the hill I would have surely hit the police SUV along with the 3 cars that stopped near him.

This is a category that has so many choices I found it very difficult to thoroughly research all of them. I decided to take the advice of others who have actually tested the top 5 to 10 dash cams. I used YouTube search, amazon lists and the trusted reviews at The Wirecutter.

The Garmin 35 showed up as a top pick amount fellow truckers on YouTube. I suspect this is because it is available to be purchased with loyalty points at most truck stops and due to brand loyalty since many of us use the Garmin GPS units.

I really wanted to buy this one for those two reasons as well however it’s one of the most expensive units on the market.

I decided to go with The Wirecutter’s top pick the Zero Edge Technology Z-Edge Z3. I ordered mine from Amazon with two day shipping since I’ll be leaving Florida in a few days with my 12 year old son as a rider on this next round of trips across the country.

This unit records ultra high quality video which is important to me since like to post videos of interesting and breathtaking scenery on my YouTube channel. I does not have GPS so the location and speed you are traveling at will not be stamped on the video. I feel this is a plus since the speed could be used against you in the case of an accident.

Also the Z-3 has the best adjustable suction cup mount which is very important to me as well.

Let’s review the most important deciding points to purchase this brand and model.

High quality video recording both day and night

Best suction cup mount

Easy to use without complicated features that could possibly be used against you in case of an accident

Other benefits, the icing on the cake…

Comes with a 32 gigabyte sd card

Costs less than the Garmin

Has both a long and a short cord in the box

Instructions are clear with USA customer service from Zero Edge

Cons

Does not use a capacitor which works better in hot environments than the permanently installed lithium ion battery

Cant buy this one at a truck stop with fuel bonus points on your loyalty card